Newspapers critical of Vercauteren

“A disastrous performance,” “Anderlecht played like thieves” and “Vercauteren remains a coward”. Anderlecht and it’s coach are under heavy criticism in today's newspapers.

Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad claimed it did not see one bubble of champagne and wonders if the fans will ever witness Anderlecht’s trademark champagne football under Vercauteren’s reign. According to the paper, the Anderlecht coach makes things too complicated for his players: “Vercauteren makes a habit of complaining that his players do not understand their tasks properly. Yet he constantly changes the formation of his team. Football players are not university professors. Keep it simple should be the message.”

Both the Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg vent criticism in Vercauteren’s direction: “He had no intention of getting rid of his reputation of being a cowardly tactician. A badly informed spectator would not have been able to tell which of both teams had been paralysed by heavy doubts all season.”

De Standaard was critical of the players as well. The defence would not be up to par and a true leader is missing in midfield. Especially the so called star players did not escape criticism: “Ahmed Hassan is too in love with the ball while Mbark Boussoufa, recent winner of the Golden Boot, is playing too arrogantly.”

Most papers do reach the same conclusion however: “Lousy performances while winning points: the way to grab the title.”